Contact your bank
Use our Facebook, Twitter or Email tools above to get in touch with your bank and drive the point home.
If you've already decided to leave, now is a great time to let them know why they've lost you as a customer.
Otherwise it's a great opportunity to put them on notice and let them know that if they don't change, customers like you will be walking out the door.
Ready to take the next step?
More than 20,000 GetUp members like you have spoken. It's time to leave the Big Four banks.
For too many years Westpac, ANZ, NAB and the Commonwealth Bank have ripped off their customers, handed out shonky financial advice, and poured billions into unethical and damaging fossil fuel projects.1,2,3
The good news is that the tide has begun to turn, with customers increasingly leaving the Big Four for ethical alternatives — financial institutions with responsible lending practices, strong environmental policies, and progressive social values.4
The best among these are customer-owned institutions that act for the good of the community rather than their executives and shareholders.
They have strong divestment policies that rule out investing in the fossil fuel industry, and undertake initiatives to support at-risk Australians and ensure fair and equitable access to financial services for the most vulnerable in our communities.
While we can't give you financial advice, we can tell you our partner Bank Australia is an ethical alternative to the big banks — a customer-owned bank with firm commitments against lending to the fossil fuel industry.
It's true that divesting sends a powerful message. But it's important you do your own research to make sure you're making the right choice for your own circumstances
If you'd like to do some more research on other alternatives, a good place to start might be with this list of customer-owned financial institutions from the Customer-Owned Banking Association.
Environmental non-profit Market Forces also has a great website comparing the track records of banks when it comes to fossil fuel investments.
NB. For every person who switches to Bank Australia through the Brighter Banks campaign, GetUp receives a once-off financial contribution — allowing us to do even more to fight for a safe climate future.
References
1. How ANZ Bank's count of poor financial advice to customers soared into the thousands, Business Insider, 23 April 2018
2. Banking royal commission: big-four planners 'could be charged' for failing clients, The Australian, 1 May 2018
3. Banks 2° scorecard 2018, Market Forces, 1 June 2018
4. Switching banks: nearly half of all Australians would consider move over climate change, The Guardian, 15 September 2016